Mike Lazaridis
Published for the Week Of October 18, 2004
FOR: Wireless messaging
When it comes to the current BlackBerry and the e-mail-all-the-time scenario it enables, you can thank, or curse, Mike Lazaridis.
In the mid-1990s, people were still getting used to cell phones, and paging was going strong. “But two-way wireless messaging had people scratching their heads,” said Lazaridis, president and co-founder of Research in Motion (RIM).
That was when Lazaridis and his partner, Jim Balsillie, decided to bet big on the convergence of portable devices and messaging and founded RIM. “That was one of those overnight decisions you make after 10 years in business,” Lazaridis said.
In 1997, RIM produced its first integrated two-way pager that interacted with existing messaging accounts, and two years later, it put the pieces together in the BlackBerry. The rest is history.
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The device’s success hinges on its ability to parse e-mail so that it is readable and sortable. Only vital information--sender, subject, a bit of text--appears on the small display. “It doesn’t just put you at the top of the message, but in the middle,” he said.
The design solved a paradox: When is a small display more valuable than a large one? “It comes down to information vs. data,” Lazaridis said. “The small display focuses attention on information.”
Curse him if you like, but the BlackBerry has a lot of fans--such as Alain Dias, director of strategic services for Interlink Group, a solution provider in Bellevue, Wash. Being in constant contact with clients and the office “keeps the sales cycle moving in the right direction,” Dias said.
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Education:
Honorary doctorate, engineering degree, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
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Yahoo or Google:
Both, for different reasons
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Favorite Blog:
“I don’t blog yet.”
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Favorite handheld:
RIM’s BlackBerry
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Most-used app:
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First paying job:
Worked in the research department at Control Data
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Carbs or no carbs:
No carbs